steve wrote:We had enough to do a couple of more but entries dropped to the point where it wouldn't have been competitive. So there's no real future for the contest since everyone spends a lot of time on social media. It might re-emerge on social media, but maybe as an experiment.

But if you post some great photos on this site, I usually cross-post it on our page and might include it in future site updates.

I dropped facebook years back after my wife had died of a unfortunate incident who used facebook a lot and several people who I liked deeply was involved with so much drama. I am a drama free individual and now officially I can say that my depression of her death is over. It seemed at the time I dropped facebook, there was ongoing drama that I wanted no part of. I guess now that I recovered from the depression, I can start a new facebook account only selecting certain people who are drama free for the most part.

I don't think you are missing out on anything, I've known a few people who deleted their accounts. I probably would too but I need one to manage our page. I'm not a big fan of answering questions on it either, it's not a great format for it in my opinion.

steve wrote:I don't think you are missing out on anything, I've known a few people who deleted their accounts. I probably would too but I need one to manage our page. I'm not a big fan of answering questions on it either, it's not a great format for it in my opinion.

I agree with you 100%. From what I seen on your forums is what many forums from back in the day ended up to be which is most members turn to social media being a all in one type forum with extra benefits such as games and larger audiences. I do not see many people posting here and I am sure they do it on social media instead.

Thank you for applying the avatar photo for me, much appreciated . I hope my experience in general helps forum members who do visit here and I am benefiting from you personally on your education at least on reviewing the threads that you responded too Your responses to my direct questions has also been beneficial and to be applied to my knowledge. I am overall happy to be here on your forums. I just wish more people would post threads and respond now.

I'm enjoying your posts TBTF, thank you for contributing. This and most other small forums, will probably stay slow or close up. I'm sometimes surprised at what we were able to accomplish only a few years ago. I like to think that we were able to educate a lot of people and they don't need help anymore, so now they spend that time enjoying their turtles.

steve wrote:I'm enjoying your posts TBTF, thank you for contributing. This and most other small forums, will probably stay slow or close up. I'm sometimes surprised at what we were able to accomplish only a few years ago. I like to think that we were able to educate a lot of people and they don't need help anymore, so now they spend that time enjoying their turtles.

You are more than welcome and yes I love these forums. I used to be a Admin for two different forums prior to the social media groups going up where everyone seemed to communicate there now and even it is that way today. During my time spent in the reptile chat rooms and forums, we created a member marketing plan that worked well on getting dedicated members to the boards. I can suggest the two of these areas to you if you wish over private messaging . It would increase some but not like it was back in the day before social media took off strong. People should not leave because of social media or go slow in posting. Members would receive much more one on one attention and education through a controlled Administrative group than groups that have anyone controlling the page on social media or pages anyone can create on social media who may or may not have the experience in reptiles in general and can not provide great education or proper management skills in public relations.

I think that's pretty insightful though I think that would be better on a paid site, and I'm against advertising and subscriptions. I'm not against change or moving to new mediums, it's just hard to let go of the old stuff

steve wrote:I think that's pretty insightful though I think that would be better on a paid site, and I'm against advertising and subscriptions. I'm not against change or moving to new mediums, it's just hard to let go of the old stuff

One thing we did was have a 3D marketing ad with custom search engine optimization known as SEO for the chat room and forums that directly linked the to the boards. The 3D ad attracted new members all while the SEO limited the time spent on marketing. Fortunately for us at the old forums and it can be used on social media as well, the SEO if you list it between 3 to 6 times in a two day period works itself up the major search engines to the very top attracting enthusiast from all over. At that time we seen a major ongoing membership rating of active posters. Using the SEO in listing 3 to 6 times in a two day period lasted about two months without advertising any further. Every two months we repeated this cycle. With the 3 d ad and seo already created, during posting of the 3 to 6 times in two days, it was as simple thing every two months as uploading a photo and copy and paste the custom seo. Anyone could do it.